Field Trip

The 4th grade classes at Isabel's school went to the Living History Farms today as part of their studies about the Midwest Region of the United States (they are learning about each region, the states names, as well as the capitals). I was able to go with her class on the trip as a parent volunteer.

We left school at 8:30 this morning and spent the whole day at Living History Farms. We started at the 1700 Iowa Indian Farm where we learned about what the Ioway Indians planted (squash, beans, and corn) and that they planted everything in one field. We then moved onto the 1850 Pioneer Farm where we learned about how the Pioneers lived. People at this time started having livestock and planted corn, wheat, and potatoes. We then moved onto the 1900 Farm. Here, families had a house versus a log cabin in the 1850's. They grew mainly oats, hay, and corn.

In the afternoon, we spent our time in their little town of Walnut Hill. This is a recreation of an 1875 town. Here we got to visit different types of shops and listen to the people working in those shops what was done there and what the duties of the people working during that time would do. This was very interesting and I wished we would have had more time to see all of the shops. Time only allowed us to visit certain ones.

It was a very nice day. The rain held off until the very end of our trip. I enjoyed spending time with Isabel and her class. It was also nice placing faces with the names of students that she has talked about.

What the?

I went to a conference (Tech and Learning Midwest Tech Forum) last Friday in Chicago, Illinois. While there, one of the vendors that sponsored the event was giving away thumb drives. I picked up one as I am always in need of thumb drives. Today I chose to use it to store some pictures that a teacher needed. Upon placing the thumb drive into my computer I discovered that it already had some files on it! This really makes me wonder why this company gave away thumb drives that were not empty. Are they that hard up for money that the give away thumb drives that have been previously used by their employees or were they just completely unaware that the thumb drives had been used when they brought them to the conference?

I did it again!

I am a person that really likes to have clothes that match when I wear them. However, I have a pair of navy blue slacks that are so dark that they can look black in the right (or wrong light, depending on your view) light. Today, for the second time in a matter of months, I mistook the navy blue slacks for my black ones and put them on along with a purple shirt. The light in my closet is not the best and I was so confident that the slacks that I had pulled from the closet were indeed my black pair. It was not until I arrived at work and was sitting at my desk that I realized my mistake. I was self-conscious about my mistake for the rest of the day. No one noticed my mistake that I am aware of. Either the people that I encountered today did not notice or they chose not to say anything to me.

Doctor's Appointment

My son, Benjamin, had his 4 year check-up this afternoon. Benjamin did well during the appointment, they were able to check his vision among other things. Benjamin is now 40 1/2 inches tall, which places him in the 55% for height. He currently weighs 42.4 pounds, which places him in the 95% for weight.

The worst part of the appointment was the shots. The schedule of when immunizations are given has been changed since the last time my other two needed shots. Previously, the last round of shots was done when children turned 5. That is no longer the case. Children are now given those shots when they are 4. Needless to say, Benjamin was not too happy about getting shots and cried most of the way home. The nurse at the doctor's office did give him some Tylenol, and I think it is finally kicking in. He is much calmer now and he is no longer saying that his legs hurt.

Baseball in April

My son had a baseball game this past Saturday. I have come to the conclusion that baseball and April don't always mix. On this day the temperature was a cool 48 degrees and it was windy and raining. Despite the fact that the game only lasted an hour and fifteen minutes, the weather conditions made it feel much longer. We did come prepared for the weather; we had our winter coats, hats, and mittens on. We also had blankets and umbrellas with us as well.

It was a good game and our team played well despite being cold and wet. David wasn't too sure at first about playing in the rain, but also did well. He even caught a ball hit by a batter causing the third out in the last inning!

Baseball

The baseball season has started for us. David is playing in the coach's pitch section of Little League. This season, the coaches pitch to the players. Part way through the season, however, the players will start pitching in practice for next season where the players pitch the entire season. David will have games once to twice a week through the end of May. Let's hope that the weather cooperates.

Birthday's

Yesterday we celebrated David (whose birthday was in March) and Benjamin's (whose birthday is this week) birthday's. We chose to celebrate their birthdays together due to the fact that my two nephews and my niece also have birthdays in March and April.

The party went very well and David and Benjamin shared the spotlight nicely. They took turns opening up presents and even shared a birthday cake.

After everyone left the party, we decided to go to Wal Mart in order to allow David and Benjamin to pick out their new bikes (which are our presents to them for their birthdays).

Easter

We had a fun, busy Easter Sunday. It started early this morning with our children finding their Easter baskets and hunting for their Easter eggs. The hunt for eggs did not go exactly as planned. Benjamin found his eggs quite easily, as they were out in plain sight. Isabel and David's eggs were hidden around the house. Things started out well, but when Benjamin found all of his eggs right away and Isabel started finding the other eggs quite easily, David became upset. After a few hints, David was able to find some more eggs, but became upset again when Isabel found all of her eggs, leaving him to be the last one to finish. He did finally find all of his eggs and was again happy. We are considering (not too seriously) just having Benjamin find eggs next year because he is the only one that truly enjoyed the thrill of finding the eggs. (Although, Isabel is becoming very suspicious about whether there truly is an Easter bunny; but that's a topic for another day.)

The rest of our Easter was fairly uneventful. We were unable to go to church today due to the fact that my grandma had Easter dinner at her house. She lives in NE Iowa and the trip is about 2 1/2-3 hours one way to visit her. It was well worth the hours spent in the van to see her, and other family members, which is not often enough.

Rare Night at Home

Our week nights are usually very busy with activities that the kids are involved in and with church activities going on, especially during Lent. I thought that I had bell choir tonight, so I went to church. However, when I arrived, there were only three other members of our bell choir there. I called the conductor of our group and discovered that we did not have practice tonight. So, I was able to come back home and relax. Isabel and David still have their respective meetings tonight (girl scouts and cub scouts) but my husband dropped Isabel off before heading, with David, to the cub scout meeting.

April Snow Showers

Usually the saying goes "April showers bring May flowers." However, today instead of rain showers, we have snow showers. It started out as rain last night and continued that way through mid morning when it then changed over to snow. Fortunately, the ground temperature has warmed up some, so while some of the snow is sticking, a lot of it has melted already.

Knowing that it was supposed to rain and snow, I choose to spread grass seed on our lawn yesterday. My thought was to take advantage of the moisture that was coming our way and not have to worry about watering the lawn for a few days. Rain is in our forecast for later on this week, so I shouldn't have to water the lawn until next week at the earliest.

Exhausted

I don't know why, but I woke up at 2 am this morning . I fell asleep about 9:30 last night, so I received approximately 4 1/2 hours of sleep. After laying in bed for an hour and a half, unable to fall asleep; I finally came downstairs. I was able to do some laundry, pick up the living room and dinning room and vacuum. My family sleeps very soundly at night and vacuuming at night (or early morning) does not wake them up. I was also able to watch a show ("My Boys" on TBS) that I tivoed last night. This was all accomplished before I left the house at 4:50 am to go to the gym.

Needless to say, I am very exhausted; to the point of feeling sick. While I do occasionally have problems sleeping, I can usually get back to sleep. Last night, however, my mind started racing about things that have been going on at work and I was unable to turn off my mind. I plan on going to bed here very soon with the hopes of sleeping the evening and night away.